boudoir

See also: Boudoir

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French boudoir, from bouder (“to sulk”), of Germanic origin.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbuːdwɑː/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /buˈdwɑɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈbuːdwɔːɹ/

Noun

boudoir (plural boudoirs)

1. A woman's private sitting room, dressing room, or bedroom.

   Coordinate terms: cabinet, study

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 118:

     The Duchesse's boudoir was fitted up in a style of luxury utterly different from anything before familiar to the Carraras.

   • 1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter I, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part III, page 264:

     The church like a huge boudoir spread around her; the arches bent down to gather in the shade the confession of her love; the windows shone resplendent to illumine her face, and the censers would burn that she might appear like an angel amid the fumes of the sweet-smelling odours.

   • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 154:

     Dorcas, faithful to her “young gentlemen,” denied strenuously that it could have been John’s voice she heard, and resolutely declared, in the teeth of everything, that it was Mr. Inglethorp who had been in the boudoir with her mistress.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     I found her in her boudoir getting outside a dish of tea and a crumpet.

2. (US military, slang) An army tent.

Derived terms

• boudoir bandicoot
• boudoir biscuit
• boudoir chair
• boudoir lamp
• boudoir piano
• smell like a tart's boudoir

Related terms

• boody

Translations

woman's private room — see also bower,‎ dressing room

• French: boudoir (fr) m
• German: Boudoir (de) n
• Polish: buduar (pl) m
• Spanish: boudoir m

See also

• withdrawing room, drawing room

French

Etymology

From bouder +‎ -oir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.dwaʁ/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -waʁ

Noun

boudoir m (plural boudoirs)

1. boudoir (woman's private sitting room)
   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎^[2], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères; republished as Eleanor Marx, transl., Madame Bovary, 1886:

     L'église, comme un boudoir gigantesque, se disposait autour d'elle; les voûtes s'inclinaient pour recueillir dans l'ombre la confession de son amour; les vitraux resplendissaient pour illuminer son visage, et les encensoirs allaient brûler pour qu'elle apparût comme un ange, dans la fumée des parfums.

     The church like a huge boudoir spread around her; the arches bent down to gather in the shade the confession of her love; the windows shone resplendent to illumine her face, and the censers would burn that she might appear like an angel amid the fumes of the sweet-smelling odours.

2. sponge, ladyfinger

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: будоар (budoar)
• → English: boudoir
• → German: Boudoir
• → Greek: μπουντουάρ (bountouár)
• → Hungarian: budoár
• → Macedonian: будоар (budoar)
• → Polish: buduar
• → Romanian: budoar
• → Russian: будуа́р (buduár)
  • → Georgian: ბუდუარი (buduari)
• → Serbo-Croatian: будоар
• → Swedish: budoar
• → Turkish: buduvar
• → Ukrainian: будуа́р (buduár)

Further reading

• “boudoir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012